Batman Begins... In Video games

 
HAZ CLIC AQUÍ PARA LEER ESTA ENTRADA EN ESPAÑOL.

Original game cover

Hello everybody! How it is going? Did you help already Don Ramiro to cleanse the land of Castile from the clutches of evil? I know, I know... What a coincidence that enemies appear always just when you were jumping over a pit to hit you and make you fall in it, right? Well, what can I say, welcome back to the 80s... Anyway, in this new entry of my blog I´m going to talk about my favorite comic hero, Batman, or to be more exact, about the first adventure of the Caped Crusader in his long career in the videogame industry. In 1986, with an inspirited Frank Miller (Sin City, 300, Batman Year One, Elektra) bringing the myth of the Batman to a new dimension with his timeless instant classic “The Dark Night Returns”, and before Nolan and Bale revived an agonizing Dark Knight in the movie industry with their sublime trilogy, or Rocksteady Studios took the game industry by storm with their amazing Batman Arkham series, considered by many as the best superheroes videogames in history, Ocean Software developed the very first videogame based on the universe of the Batman, a game that was praised for it´s great design by the press of the moment and that still nowadays keeps a cult status among the most veteran players, considered by many as one of the best games ever released based on the popular DC Comics character.

Original version

Remake version

As I was saying before, former British developer Ocean Software released in 1986 the very first game based on the Batman franchise for the Amstrad, Spectrum and MSX computers, that far from being just another beat ´em up, was a complex adventure of exploration, puzzle solving and platforms that used an isometric view. In this adventure we assume the role of Batman, who will have to gather the 7 pieces of the Batmobile scattered through the Batcave in order to rescue Robin, who has been kidnapped by the Joker and the Riddler, but it won´t be an easy task, for the Batcave will be infested with traps and minions who will try their best to put an end to the myth of the Dark Night. The Batcave, which it´s rather psychedelic design makes it somehow even scarier than the Arkham Asylum itself (not to mention the enemies), will be divided in 150 rooms that we will have to explore in order to obtain all the pieces of the Batmobile. To do so, we will have to overcome all types of traps and puzzles in order to be able to advance through the adventure, some of which we won´t be able to solve until we find first the necessary items that will grant us the special skills necessary to do so, like for example the “Batboots”, which will allow us to jump. The overall design of the game is quite light and cartoonish (and Batnipples-free), although it is not as cheesy as the 60s classic series.

 

Don´t worry, Robin, I will save you so we can dance together again!

Anyway, if you feel curious about the first great adventure of Batman in the game industry and cannot wait any longer until Rocksteady guys release the stunningly looking Batman Arkham Knight, I recommend you to try this brilliant FREE remake of this great classic developed by indie game developer Tomaz Kaz, who gave the game a pretty nice graphic boost. Here is the link: http://retrospec.sgn.net/game-links.php?link=batman. Enjoy! See you in the next Batentry!

GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7JpDrDd_iw